You can contribute to the Resident Program:
People from all over the world come to Upaya to
practice, serve, and learn. Upaya completely supports their presence
as they stay with us from three months to a year. Please support
this program.

Please note special schedule for Jan 13 - 19: Morning zazen will be 6:45 – 7:45 am, with the exception of Zazenkai on Jan. 17 when we will have our regular 7 - 8 am zazen. Also, there will be no 5:30 - 6:30 pm zazen during this week.

Additionally, there will be no 12:20 pm zazen from January 13 – February 7 due to our Winter Practice Period schedule.

Special Request: Because of limited housing at Upaya, we are requesting that the extended community let us know if you are able to house retreat guests on a donation basis or by renting a room. Please contact Roberta registrar@upaya.org. We really appreciate your generosity.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind. ~William James

This winter, please join us for a time of deep practice and study with Sensei Beate, Gregory Kramer (author of Insight Dialogue), Sensei Kaz Tanahashi, plus the exceptional Zen Brain Faculty, including Richard Davidson, John Dunne, Evan Thompson, Al Kaszniak, Roshi Joan, and Upaya's renowned “Zen Brain Retreat”. Monthlong participants will go to Chaco as part of the retreat. Click here for more information and to register for this Practice Period.

The Self and Selflessness in Neuroscience, Buddhism, and Philosophy with Roshi Joan Halifax, PhD, Richard J. Davidson, PhD, John Dunne, Phd, Al Kaszniak, PhD, Evan Thompson, PhD. In this retreat, prominent scientists and scholars will explore Buddhist, philosophic, and neuroscientific perspectives on the self and selfless, and the implications of these areas for Zen practice. We will look at how to apply the research in neuroscience in the areas of identity, causality, and mental function. Talks, discussions, and explorations with participants are embedded within Zazen practice throughout each day. Click here for more information and to register for this retreat.

Eve Ensler Talk and Booksigning at Upaya: Feb 21

Eve Ensler, playwright, performer, activist, feminist is one of the great and brave women of our times.

Join us for her talk, The Future is Girl, and book signing of her new book, I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls.

Roshi Joan will introduce her good friend on Sunday, February 21, here is the schedule:

4:30 - 5:00 book signing5:00 - 5:45 Eve speaking5:45 - 6:30 Q & A

Eve Ensler's newest work, I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls, will debut in February 2010 (in book format) and chronicles the struggle of girls everywhere to overcome the obstacles, threats, and pressures that rob them of their originality and power. Girls today often find themselves in a struggle between remaining strong and true to themselves and conforming to society's expectations in an attempt to please. They are taught not to be too intense, too passionate, too smart, too caring, too open. They are encouraged to shut down their instincts, their outrage, their desires and their dreams, to be polite, to obey the rules. I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE is a celebration of the authentic voice inside every girl and an inspiring call to action for girls everywhere to speak up, follow their dreams, and become the women they were always meant to be.

V-Day believes that girls are the future of our movement. Women are the primary resource of our planet. It is imperative to educate and nurture future activists so we can see our vision of a world free from violence against women and girls come true. I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls is a new vehicle to empower girls and inspire activism. Through the newly created V-Girls program, young girls will be able to participate in the V-Day movement, in the same way The Vagina Monologues built a movement on college campuses and in communities in over 130 countries around the world.

Eve will also be appearing on Saturday, February 20th at the Lensic with local New Mexico teens reading and all are welcome to attend (ticket information will be available shortly.

Roshi's News

The mind is like a parachute - it works only when it is open. ~Frank Zappa

Roshi spent intensive days at Johns Hopkins teaching in oncology, pediatric palliative care, neurology, surgery; great thanks to Dr. Cynda Rushton, head of the Hopkins Ethics Committee and Hopkins Dean and CEO Dr. Ed Miller. She then met with the Contemplative End-of-Life Care Core Council in Florida, and later this week teaches at the University of Miami School of Medicine, where she was on faculty 40 years ago! She returns to Upaya for the Zen Brain program.

"This compelling, brave, and wise book draws from a lifetime of remarkable work with people at the end of life."—Andrew Weil, MD

"Joan Halifax has a knack for straight talk and sublime insight—a no-holds-barred approach to life's greatest challenge, dying well. This book beckons to those who dare, and those who care; it's a profound and practical guidebook to the inevitable final dance."—Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence

• Roshi Joan and three close friends, John Madison, Lola Long, and Brother John, made a remarkable Pilgrimage to Mt. Kailash in 1987. They hitchhiked across the Tibetan plateau where Roshi Joan did a retreat in a cave north of Lake Manasarovar. She and her friends circumabulated Mt. Kailash and then hitchhiked back across the plateau. Watch the video here -- this is an extraordinary film. Enjoy!

The Upaya bookstore has a number of Roshi's dharma talks on DVD. Please call the front office for titles and ordering, 505-986-8518, or email upaya@upaya.org

The Chinese filmmaker Kam Sung has made a fascinating and visually poetic account of Roshi Joan in Tibet. A high-resolution version on DVD is now available from Upaya. Email at upaya@upaya.org or call 505-986-8518 to order. See exceptional video of Roshi in Eastern Tibet done by Kam Sung: https://www.createspace.com/267427

Roshi Joan's 6-CD series on Being with Dying (from Sounds True Audio) is now available. Call 505-986-8518 to order or email: upaya@upaya.org

Feature Articles

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On Building a Better Brain: Re. Dr. Richard Davidson

On a bone-chilling night in January, a capacity crowd of roughly 400 people packed the main auditorium at First Unitarian Society on Madison’s west side. The man everyone came to see was selected by Time magazine in 2006 as one of the world’s 100 most influential people. He’s in regular contact with the Dalai Lama. His work has made him a veritable rock star in the world of neuroscience.

Yet UW-Madison researcher Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D., known simply as "Richie" to friends and colleagues, seemed to genuinely enjoy taking questions from the public just as much as he might from scientific colleagues.

Punctuating his talk with humor, and frequently flashing a broad smile, Davidson seemed thoroughly at ease. The 57-year-old Madison resident (he lives on the west side with his wife, Susan, a perinatologist at St. Mary’s Hospital) spoke fluidly without notes for more than an hour, moving freely about the stage.

Davidson, a professor of psychology and psychiatry and director of the UW’s Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience, was speaking on neuroplasticity — the ability of the brain to remain flexible, adaptable and trainable. It’s one of the foundations of his work.

The adult brain, scientists now realize, continues to make about 5,000 new cells per day. It is ever changing, or "plastic," throughout life.

"Traits formerly considered to be fixed are really not," said Davidson. "They’re characteristics that can be changed through training."

In other words, human beings have more control over our minds than previously thought. And one way of training the brain is meditation — another main focus of Davidson’s work.

"We’re carrying our own laboratory between our ears, and we just need to use it," Davidson told the crowd.

One audience member asked about the potential benefits of meditation for prisoners. It was a prescient question: On Thursday, March 26, Davidson will participate in a panel discussion following a screening of The Dhamma Brothers, a new documentary (see sidebar).

The film explores an intensive meditation course in an Alabama maximum-security prison. And there is reason to believe it works. As Davidson mused, "With a slight shift of mindset, prisons can become monasteries."

This statement seemed to be greeted with a slight ripple of surprise, maybe even shock. It’s not hard to imagine saffron-robed Buddhist monks engaged in hours of serene contemplation, but criminals?

Hello, Dalai

Davidson, from within his sunlit office in the UW’s Waisman Center, admits his ties to the Dalai Lama are at first a bit surprising.

"It’s exceedingly rare," he says of their association. "I don’t know any other spiritual leader who has that kind of intense interest in science."

But the Dalai Lama, Davidson suggests, is a scientist at heart: "He has a deep, abiding and tenacious curiosity. He asks amazingly probing questions, and he has made the statement that he is prepared to give up anything in Buddhism that is directly contradicted by scientific fact."

Davidson’s interest in contemplative practices predates his friendship with the Dalai Lama. In fact, as he told the crowd at First Unitarian, he first went to India in 1974, after his second year in graduate school at Harvard.

It was in India and later Sri Lanka that Davidson first witnessed intensive meditation, which he began to dabble in himself. He came to the UW in 1984, when contemplative practices were not always considered a suitable topic for research psychologists.

In 1992 the Dalai Lama sent Davidson a fateful fax, encouraging research into the effects of meditation and inviting him to a meeting in Dharamsala, India. That marked the beginning of an enduring intellectual partnership. In fact, Davidson plans to return to India on April 1 to meet with the Dalai Lama again.

Beginning in 2000, Davidson and colleagues at the Waisman Center began studying seasoned meditation practitioners as they engaged in specific exercises, such as compassion meditation. Functional MRI scans were used to record brain activity.

In compassion meditation, one aims to obtain a state of mind suffused with love and compassion for all, without reasoning or distracting thoughts.

The meditators used in this study each had a minimum of 10,000 hours of practice, and their lifetime average was much higher: a whopping 35,000 hours, roughly equivalent to 17 years at a full-time job.

Davidson’s research revealed increased activity in the left prefrontal cortex of the brain, an area also correlated with happiness, as well as significant activity in the motor regions of the brain, which are connected to converting intention to action.

While Davidson does not discount the spiritual aspects of meditation for many practitioners, it need not be a spiritual practice to provide benefits.

In fact, mindfulness-based stress reduction, widely taught in academic medical centers, is completely secular. And even the Dalai Lama has said: "Love and compassion are the true religion to me. But to develop this, we do not need to believe in any religion."

Davidson himself lives in the world of firm evidence and peer-reviewed journals, not a gauzy web of hunches.

He frequently uses phrases like "hard-nosed research" or "hard data." He’s careful to spell out what is concretely known about meditation’s benefits and what is surmised but not yet proven.

For example, when asked about the link between compassion for others and a sense of personal happiness, Davidson cites an experiment conducted elsewhere in which participants were given $50 to spend. Half were instructed to spend it on themselves, half to spend it on others. Those who bought gifts for others reported feeling happier after the exercise.

Concludes Davidson, "We are built to experience happiness when we can facilitate the happiness of others and facilitate the compassion that is the relief of suffering of others. I think there is this connection, but there is precious little hard-nosed research at this point in time."

Ongoing research

While much psychological research focuses on dysfunction — negative feelings and destructive patterns — Davidson seeks to investigate correlations between brain activity and positive human emotions. The goal is to see whether human beings can produce physical changes in the brain that can improve their lives.

Early studies suggest meditation could help people coping with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, hypertension and asthma. And Davidson and his colleagues want to study how meditation might benefit K-12 students, medical patients, prisoners and others.

Two new grants will help advance these goals, though further funding is needed and actively being sought.

Last November, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a $6 million grant to the Wisconsin Center on the Neuroscience and Psychophysiology of Meditation. Some of this funding will go toward supporting ongoing research in Davidson’s lab.

The Fetzer Institute, a foundation based in Kalamazoo, Mich., has donated $2.5 million toward the formation of the UW Center for Creating a Healthy Mind. The five-year grant is specifically geared toward work on the "neuroscience of compassion, love and forgiveness." The new center will have space within the Waisman Center; renovations are already under way.

"Architects are designing 4,000 feet of new space that will include a meditation room for both research and the use of students and staff," says Davidson.

Outreach has also begun, such as training in mindfulness-based stress reduction, offered free to teachers and staff at the Waisman Early Childhood Program.

The Center for Creating a Healthy Mind is set to open in May 2010. It’s already lined up a keynote speaker: Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the author of such books as Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life.

Davidson’s work is not without controversy. He’s been criticized for collaborating on studies involving the use of nonhuman primates. He’s defended that work publicly in lectures and media interviews.

"Contrary to some of the claims that have been made by people who have been objecting to this," he says, "I’ve actually never received a penny of research dollars [as the principal investigator] either from a federal agency or any private foundation for research on animals ever in my career. That is a matter of public record."

Davidson says he is "not defending the status quo" in terms of how animals are treated, seeing this as an area in which scientists and animal rights activists can work together.

"Animal research is not going to go away, I think everyone would agree," he says. "So the most practical thing is to try to change the culture to reduce the suffering of animals."

Man on a mission

Like other scientists, Davidson is optimistic that the Obama administration will change the scientific climate for the better.

"The sensibility and the inclination of the new administration is, in my own view, a terrifically healthy change from the past," he says. "In the stimulus package, there’s an enormous increase for the NIH budget; that’s a very hopeful sign. So I think that it’s great news for science in general."

Speaking more specifically about meditation, Davidson continues: "There is an unbelievable crisis in this country with health care costs. Something has to be done. There is some reason to believe that individuals who engage in a regular practice of meditation will show decreased health care utilization. This needs to be studied very carefully.... [Meditation] is an extraordinarily low-cost intervention with very few, if any, side effects."

Indeed, meditation is practiced by some members of Congress — including Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who sits on the House subcommittee dealing with appropriations for health and education.

"[Ryan] has actually visited my lab very recently," says Davidson. "He is intensely interested in this area and strongly believes in its importance. He is currently in the process of organizing hearings on Capitol Hill that will allow me and several other scientists to testify."

Like any scientist needing ongoing funding, Davidson seeks to ignite the interest of government officials, foundations and individual donors. He’s a man on a mission.

Yet he seems equally keen to share his ideas with the public. Thus his talk at First Unitarian or one he gave at the Overture Center on behalf of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, which inducted him as a fellow in 2004.

"It’s very important to me, and I enjoy talking to lay audiences," says Davidson of his public speaking engagements.

"I do it because we as scientists in general have a moral obligation to communicate with the public, since so much research is supported by taxpayer dollars.

"But in my case," he adds, "it’s even more important because we’re discovering things and dealing with issues that are genuinely beneficial to people in their everyday lives."

By Jennifer A. Smith, Friday 03/20/2009From The Daily Page/Isthmus

__________________________

Recent Articles by Richard Davidson Ph.D.

Articles by the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience, Richard (R. J.) Davidson.Click here for links to these and other articles:

Total Recall: A Journey From Vienna to Brooklyn and the Center of the Brain: A. O. Scott

It’s not often that you are invited to spend an hour or two in the presence of a Nobel Prize winner, and “In Search of Memory: The Neuroscientist Eric Kandel,” Petra Seeger’s new documentary, offers an especially gratifying opportunity. The film’s subject won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research into the workings of the brain. He is particularly interested in how, at the cellular level, the mind stores and sorts various stimuli and turns them into long- and short-term memory.

For Dr. Kandel, whose laboratory conducts experiments on mice and snails, memory is one of the keys to human identity. Our mental patterns of recollection and learning have been grist for much philosophical and literary speculation, to which Dr. Kandel, a deeply cultured and thoroughly civilized man, pays sincere respect. And though he is preoccupied with physical processes, he is also aware of just how mysterious and complicated their implications and results can be.

Ms. Seeger, a German filmmaker who occasionally appears on screen with Dr. Kandel and his family, gives only a sketch of his ideas and discoveries, but the basic information about axons, synapses and neurons is presented clearly and with enthusiasm. “In Search of Memory” is finally more concerned with the scientist than with his science, and in his particular memories rather than his insights into memory as such. This is hardly a criticism, since Dr. Kandel is an unusually engaging person with a pretty amazing biography.

The camera follows him on visits to Vienna, where he was born, and to Brooklyn, where he lived after fleeing the Nazis in the late 1930s. His accent and temperament are an almost perfect amalgam of the two places: a refined, intellectual disposition forged in Sigmund Freud’s hometown and inflected by the scrapes and strivings of life in the borough of immigrants. He speaks German precisely if at times a bit haltingly and peppers his English with Yiddish words. He laughs easily, and though a prodigious talker — we see him lecturing and also holding forth in the laboratory and at a family Seder — he seems like a good listener as well.

As its main title (shared with Dr. Kandel’s 2006 memoir) suggests, “In Search of Memory” is more concerned with exploration than with comprehensiveness or conclusions. At 95 minutes, it necessarily lacks the sweep and detail of the book, which was more than 500 pages, and occasionally tries to compensate with awkward re-enactments of events from Dr. Kandel’s childhood. But it is an engrossing portrait all the same, a generous introduction to someone worth knowing, who knows an awful lot.

IN SEARCH OF MEMORY

NYTIMES January 8, 2010

Roshi Taigen Leighton Speaks

A communique from Roshi Taigen that went to American Zen Teachers Association, reprinted with Roshi's permission, on discussion of innocence, Buddhism, murder.

"With all due respect to all my brothers and sisters on this list, I want to go further.

From where I sit, the "ban" on politics on this list means we cannot have a coherent discussion of bodhisattva ethics either. They are not separate.To speak about "compassionate killing" as an abstract theoretical discussion, ignores the specific differences of Buddha's time in Northern India, and ours in 21st century U.S.A., where I believe most folks on this list live.

First, I agree with most of what has been said on this thread. Obviously morality and ethics is relative to different societies and different times.To take absolutist "moral" stands from one's own limited perspective and from taking on standards on our own, based even on precepts such as "a disciple of Buddha does not kill", is indeed a slippery slope to the kind of fundamentalism which now endangers our world, whether it is supposedly "Islamic" or supposedly "Christian."And I happen to believe that in this our current world, we do indeed need police, and armies, and sometimes the use of force to protect innocent people from harm.

Bodhisattva precepts do offer coherent, reliable criterion for ethical standards, e.g. non-harming, supporting life, benefiting ALL beings, which must be seen in context.

We cannot ignore place and time if we are serious about ethics.50 years ago in our country, African-Americans, in the South and elsewhere, were not allowed to vote, defacto if not by law.100 years ago in our country, women were not allowed to vote.150 years ago in large parts of our country, slavery was deemed as totally acceptable, and worthy of being spread.

Shall we have abstract discussions of the relative merits of "compassionate slavery"of "compassionate child abuse" of "compassionate misogyny" of "compassionate rape" of "compassionate Genocide" ?

In Zen at War, Brian Victoria demonstrated what happened when Zen folks in the first half of the previous century said let's support our country wholeheartedly, and then descended into militarism, and anti-semitism in some cases.

So I believe this discussion should not ignore the massive and rampant violence in our society now. I can no longer go to any movie theater around here without being subjected to heroic ads from the Army, National Guard, Marines about the heroic wonders of war. The defacto draft into the military of all those who cannot find other jobs is accelerating, as other job options dwindle. And most of the most engaging and skillful drama in our movies or television, which I admit I patronize and sometimes enjoy, are about mass-violence, serial killers, etc. The mass media feigns surprise and bewilderment at each new episode of Men with Guns shooting up people at a school or shopping mall, etc.

In addition to reading Jarvis Masters, please see Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" (and his "Capitalism: A Love Story" for that matter). The killings at Columbine high school were just down the road from one of our country's largest manufacturer and distributor of weapons of mass destruction. Our country makes little else here anymore, and we make (and use) more weapons than all the other countries of the world combined.This atmosphere of violence and "compassionate killing" is happening around us thanks to active support of the mass media and our government, and for the great profit of some corporations.

Very Briefly, there can be no such thing as compassionate torture.The ticking time bomb scenario is an abstract fantasy. As a great many military and intelligence experts have testified, we get no reliable intelligence from torture. People being tortured will say anything to stop it. Wouldn't you?The effects of the American torture program (started by Bush/Cheney and still continuing in some places) has been devastating for our world, not to mention American "national security," as a wonderful recruiting tool for dangerous fundamentalist Islamic killers.

Very Briefly, there can be no such thing as a compassionate Death penalty.Over a hundred people in this country have been put on death row and later proved totally innocent, often after execution.But even if we had a non-racist, equitable justice system (Very far from the current situation), even a guilty person should not be put to death, imho.It is punishment and retribution, not protecting anyone, and dehumanizes all of us. Life in prison without possibility of release would be an appropriate remedy in some cases.

I mean no offense by any of what I have said, and assume some disagree, but we cannot abstract such an ethical discussion about the great matter of life and death from what is happening all around us, here, now.

Silence and Intimacy: Ben Howard

If you are near-sighted, as I am, you may have found that you can sometimes see nearby objects more clearly by taking off your glasses. Or, to put it another way, in the absence of your glasses, the inherent closeness of those objects becomes more apparent. What was supposed to enhance your vision was actually imposing a veil between yourself and the coffee cup in front of you.

One of the aims of Zen practice is to recognize such veils and, if possible, to remove them.

According to Zen teachings, direct experience of the world—or what the Zen-trained teacher Toni Packer calls “fresh seeing”—is the one reliable basis for knowledge, understanding, and whatever wisdom we might acquire. Books and teachers may guide us, confirm what we have seen, or place our perceptions in an enabling context. But we must see things for ourselves. In Zen practice we cultivate direct seeing and a sense of intimacy, both with ourselves and with the world around us. Whatever stands in the way is to be set aside, or subjected to scrutiny, or cut asunder.

Of the conditions conducive to direct seeing, none is more important than the silence of meditation. “Only when I am quiet for a long time / and do not speak,” writes the poet Jane Hirshfield, “do the objects of my life draw near.” Elaborating her theme, she imagines that the proximate objects in her life, among them scissors and spoons and a blue mug, are deliberately keeping their distance from her. Even her towels, “for all their intimate knowledge,” are hesitant to come close. They are kept away by speech and thought, which separate self and other, the ego-centered mind and the things of this world. Only in those rare, egoless moments when she glimpses “for even an instant the actual instant” do the objects of her life draw near. At such moments, she fancifully suggests, each object emits a “sigh of happiness,” knowing that she has joined “their circle of simple, passionate thusness,” void of habitual, me-centered thought and the separation it imposes. (1)

Such intimacy is indeed a source of happiness. Conversely, a sense of separation can engender a deep and chronic suffering. In her essay “Touching Fear” Toni Packer addresses that reality:

“I’m never free of fear,” some people say, implying that there should be a state of mind and body that is free of fear. How can we possibly be free from fear when we live in the conditioned mode of the me-story most of the time? We’re deeply programmed to believe in this separate me by inaccurate language and by growing up in a world of other mes, all of whom think of and experience themselves as separate entities. . . . With separation inevitably goes fear and pain. (2)

Elsewhere, Packer quotes a questioner who asked, “Why does this me-ness, this self-centered feeling, arise when we realize that it causes such a painful sense of separation? How did it ever start in the first place?” Packer admits that she doesn’t know, but she also suggests that “all of us can watch me-ness as it is arising from moment to moment. We can find out about it if we are really deeply interested and curious.” (3)

Perhaps we can. And perhaps over time we can also discover ways to release ourselves from the me-centered tyranny of dualistic thinking, which places images and concepts between ourselves and the objects in our lives. By sitting still and not speaking, if only for the space of an hour, we can permit those objects to draw near, and we can rejoin what the poet Mary Oliver has called the “family of things.” (4) By taking off our conceptual glasses, we can see the world afresh, and see our place within it.

_____________

(1) Jane Hirshfield, “Only When I Am Quiet and Do Not Speak,” Given Sugar, Given Salt (HarperCollins 2001), p. 23

Upaya Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program: Joanna Macy

Based on the work of the late Francisco Varela and the vision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, this visionary two-year program brings together science, practice, and humanism in a powerful way with Roshi Joan Halifax, Joanna Macy, Sensei Fleet Maull, and an exceptional faculty. For more info, see http://www.upaya.org/training/chaplaincy/ or email: chaplaincy@upaya.org

Path of Service and Other Ways to Be at Upaya

There are many ways to be at Upaya...come for a personal retreat, volunteer your time, or apply for our Work Exchange or Path of Service Program.

Path of Service: Upaya is accepting applications for our Path of Service resident program, inviting practitioners to live and serve here from three months to a year or more. For more information and to apply see: http://www.upaya.org/about/path-of-service.php or contact: pos@upaya.org This is a wonderful way to give of your energy, deepen your Zen/Buddhist practice, and be in a thriving sangha.

Enjoy and learn from the opportunity to receive zen teachings from Roshi Joan Halifax, Sensei Beate Genko Stolte and many other extraordinary teachers; hear weekly seminars and dharma talks; have dokusan with Sensei Beate, and experience the deep joy of living in community.

Personal Retreat/Guest Practitioner: Quiet, still, peaceful -- Upaya is a special place in the spring with intimate rooms, kiva fireplaces, and breathtaking views. Spend some time here and find your own rhythm as a personal retreatant. To learn more about enjoying a peronal retreat at Upaya or coming as a guest practitioner, please contact Roberta at 505-986-8518 X12, registrar@upaya.org or visit: http://www.upaya.org/programs/being-at-upaya.php

Volunteer at our front desk, kitchen, garden or in housekeeping. Our volunteer program is intended for people who wish to contribute to Upaya and spend time working with the resident sangha; it is non-residential. For those who have the financial need, volunteer hours can be exchanged for retreat participation. In that case, a $10 hourly rate is credited for your work, and a maximum of 80% of the tuition may be earned and must be earned in advance of the event. Contact Roberta 505-986 8518, ext 12 or registrar@upaya.org.

Engaged Buddhism at Upaya

Compassion and love are not mere luxuries. Asthe source of both inner and external peace, they are fundamental to the continual survival of our species.~His Holiness the Dalai Lama

MINDFULNESS MUST BE ENGAGED: There are so many ways we can serve our communities. Please click for information on Upaya's service programs on caring for the sick and those in prison as well as our"Upaya Compassionate Action Network."

• Metta Refuge Council: Tuesday, 9:45 a.m., a meeting for people who are ill, their caregivers, hospice volunteers, nurses, and those interested in exploring issues around sickness, aging and death. Beginning around 11:20 a.m. until 12:05 p.m. the group engages in contemplative writing as a way to explore what is present for people in the moment. No writing experience is needed. For more information, please contact Susan Benjamin at ArtTherapy@aol.com. For details: http://www.upaya.org/action/caring.php

• TheUpaya Prison Project serves prisons residents at Santa Fe County Adult Detention Center and the Penitentiary of New Mexico. New volunteers are starting training to work "inside", teach stress management through meditation, simple yoga, and confidential conversation in a protected place. More volunteers are needed to teach life skills and social skills. If this interests you, email Ray Olson atnanrayols@aol.com.

• UCAN! is the Upaya Compassionate Action Network. Each month, UCAN highlights a social or political issue, gives background on that issue from a spiritual perspective, and suggests a way that you can translate your insights into skillful action. The focus for the month is immigration. To learn more, please click here.

• Upaya is now a member of the Interfaith Leadership Alliance of Santa Fe. Residents, Chaplaincy Students and staff are collaborating with this critical community organization in addressing the needs of those who are homeless in our community. We are donating time and resources to the Winter Overflow Shelter currently located at the old Pete's Pets building on Cerrillos. Sangha members are all welcome to participate on Upaya's behalf how, where and when possible. If interested, please contact Natalie Calia at Natalie@upaya.org or call 505-986-8518 ext 17.

Please help support our projects by making a donation to Upaya Zen Center for the Metta Program or Upaya Prison Project. We are deeply grateful for any donation.

Prajna Mountain Forest Refuge

Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things. ~Thomas Merton

We are also very interested in hosting volunteers — “Friends of the Refuge” — in three categories:• Skilled workers we know (at no charge);• Skilled workers we haven’t met before (with references, one week at no charge);

Grateful

To Jan and Bob Jahner and all the people who contributed and worked on the benefit auction for Shinzan's legal fees! Our contributors will be thanked in next week's newsletter, but the benefit was a wonderful success and great fun as well!

Sangha Request

Three wonderful cats in need of good homes. We are trying to coordinate residency for Shari Naismith here at Upaya, but we need to find homes for her three cats before she can start.

She loves these cats and wants to ensure they find peaceful loving homes. Shari rescued these cats from situations somewhat undesirable and they have begun to trust again and quite enjoyable to have around. Please read below and open your heart….then contact Shari (in Santa Fe), for further information- 859/327-8138 or lhp4all@aol.com.

Sin is a 4 year old Ragdoll female from a farm in California. Has been with Shari since she was 10 weeks old. She is spayed and has all her claws. She is beautiful, domesticated, loves people, likes to be held and sit on your lap. She is mature but still has her moments of racing around the house with her tail up high. She likes to go outside with you in the yard. She doesn’t care to go out in the winter but occasionally “thinks” she does and wants back in pretty quick. She could be made a strictly indoor cat if desired. Likes a scratching post.

Michael and Gabriel are one year old males rescued from the woods of Kentucky. Shari found them at approximately 9 weeks old and has had them since. They are neutered and have their claws. Mature for their age.

Michael is a tiger Manx (no tail at all). A true delight to experience. Currently he requires going outside during the day and in at night. You might be able to make him into a barn cat but he hasn’t spent the night outside yet, always comes home around dusk and wants in. A wonderful hunter and joy to watch come inside in the evening and crash. He is domesticated but is still quiet fearful of humans he doesn’t know. Shari can pick him up and hold him, pet him and kiss on him just like any domesticated cat, but this will take time to build that trust. He wants your trust and love desperately and it’s worth the wait. Best in a peaceful home.

Gabriel is an orange tabby and a little lover when you gain his trust. He is similar to Michael in that he is fearful of humans he doesn’t know and it will take some time to see his true loving nature. But once you get it he will curl up on your lap and be meowing for your loving attention. Loves to be petted so much that when you reach down to pet his head he will lift his front paws off the ground to meet your hand. Gabriel goes outside most days and always inside at night. He doesn’t go out much in the cold and would prefer to lounge in the house. He is more of an inside lounger than his brother Michael. Best in a peaceful home.

Upaya Sitting Groups in San Francisco, Albuquerque, Ottawa, and Burlington

True compassion does not come from wanting to help those less fortunate than ourselves but from realizing our kinship with all beings. ~Pema Chodron

• San Francisco: meets the first Thursday evening of every month. Contact thursdaysit@me.com

• Burlington, VT: Upaya/Dignity Foundation sitting group in Burlington. One Sunday per month for parent restoration and mindfulness; 90-minute gathering for practices and group discussions. Contact info@thedignityfoundation.com or nolanvt@me.com

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We become compassionate not from altruism which denies the self for the sake of the other, but from the insight that sees and feels one is the other. ~Huston Smith

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